1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an information processing apparatus, monitoring method and program, and a memory medium, in which management of a residual amount of consumables of an image forming apparatus such as printer, copying apparatus, or the like is made and management of a stock of the consumables is also made in accordance with the residual amount management.
2. Related Background Art
As a technique for managing a stock of toner cartridges which are used in OA apparatuses, according to a patent literature 1, there has been known a mechanism such that copying apparatus management devices connected to copying apparatuses in a one-to-one correspondence relational manner receive a toner empty signal and paper feed number data of each paper feed cassette from the copying apparatuses and update stock data of the toner cartridges, for example, in accordance with the reception of the toner empty signal.
As methods of outputting a toner residual amount or information corresponding to the toner residual amount from an image forming apparatus including the copying apparatus to an external apparatus, there have been known various outputting (detecting) methods such as method of outputting residual amount information of two, three, or more levels on the basis of an detection output of a sensor provided in the toner cartridge, method of outputting information indicative of the number of print sheets as a parameter of a consumption degree of the toner to the external apparatus, and the like.
[Patent Literature 1]
JP-A-08-152824
Since use of the image forming apparatus which adopts the various toner residual amount detecting methods and the methods of outputting the detected residual amount as described above is presumed in an actual office network environment, a mechanism such that the stock management can be made by unitarily managing the residual amount information, exchange of the toner cartridge, and the like in such an environment is demanded.